A best-selling author will discuss ways to deal with the differences between college and working life — the “quarterlife crisis” — at an ISU conference Saturday.

Experiences students have once they leave the security of the academic world has gained such widespread attention in past years that a book was written on the subject — “Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenge of Life in Your Twenties.”

Co-authors Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins coined the phrase to explain the significant and previously unacknowledged transition twenty-somethings experience upon their first venture into the “real world.”

Wilner will give a keynote address at a Saturday conference in the Scheman Building titled “Life 490: Succeeding Beyond a Degree.” The conference is designed for juniors and seniors to develop professional skills.

Much of the quarterlife crisis occurs in the first few months to a year after graduation, although the term can apply to people as old as 35, Wilner said in an e-mail to the Daily.

For undergraduates who are rapidly approaching graduation and are becoming somewhat concerned with the prospect of entering the business world unprepared, Student Counseling Services offers personal counseling, said Jennifer Grzegorek, staff psychologist with Student Counseling Services.

“We help guide students toward careers within their majors,” she said. “[We also] look at what careers interest them, what they want out of life, what environment they want to work in and what’s important to them.”

Those who come in to seek guidance run from college freshmen to graduate students. Even nonstudents can come in to the Counseling Service to use library materials, but cannot attend personal counseling sessions.

Although life after graduation can be hard, there are many outlets of help and information available to ISU students before they leave the security of the academic world, Grzegorek said.

Other speakers at Life 490, which begins with registration at 10:30 a.m., include retired ISU distinguished professor Ardie Roehr and Jeff Johnson, president of the ISU Alumni Association.